Sir Jasper Carew: His Life and Experience. Lever Charles James

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СКАЧАТЬ almost mad with these terrors, he now hastened his steps, stopping at times to listen, and at times calling on his daughter in the wildest accents. Without knowing whither he went, he soon lost himself in the mazes of the wood, and wandered on for hours in a state bordering upon distraction. Suspicion had so mastered his reason that he had convinced himself the whole was a deliberate scheme, – that MacNaghten had planned all beforehand. In his disordered fancies, he did not scruple to accuse his daughter of complicity, and inveighed against her falsehood and treachery in the bitterest words.

      And what was Dan MacNaghten doing all this time? Anything, everything, in short, but what he was accused of! In good truth, he had little time for love-making, had such a project even entered his head, so divided were his attentions between the care of the cattle and his task of describing the different scenes through which they passed at speed, – the prospect being like one of those modern inventions called dissolving views, – no sooner presenting an object than superseding it by another. In addition to all this, he had to reconcile Miss Polly to what seemed a desertion of her father; so that, what with his “cares of coachman, cicerone, and consoler,” as he himself afterwards said, it was clean beyond him to slip in even a word on his own part. It is no part of my task to inquire how Polly enjoyed the excursion, or whether the dash of recklessness, so unlike every incident of her daily life, did not repay her for any discomfort of her father’s absence: certain is it that when, after about six miles traversed in less than half an hour, they returned to the Castle, her first sense of apprehension was felt by not finding her father to meet her. No sooner had MacNaghten conducted her to the library than he set out himself in search of Fagan, having despatched messengers in all directions on the same errand. Dan, it must be owned, had far rather have remained to reassure Miss Polly, and convince her that her father’s absence would be but momentary; but he felt that it was a point of duty with him to go – and go he did.

      It chanced that, by dint of turning and winding, Fagan had at length approached the Castle again, so that MacNaghten came up with him within a few minutes after his search began. “Safe, and where?” were the only words the old man could utter as he grasped the other’s arm. Dan, who attributed the agitation to but one cause, proceeded at once to reassure him on the score of his daughter’s safety, detailing, at the same time, the circumstances which compelled him to turn off in a direction the opposite of that he intended. Fagan drank in every word with eagerness, his gray eyes piercingly fixed on the speaker all the while. Great as was his agitation throughout, it became excessive when MacNaghten chanced to allude to Polly personally, and to speak of the courage she displayed.

      “She told you that she was not afraid? – she said so to yourself?” cried he, eagerly.

      “Ay, a dozen times,” replied Dan, freely. “It was impossible to have behaved better.”

      “You said so, – you praised her for it, I have no doubt,” said the other, with a grim effort at a smile.

      “To be sure I did, Tony. By Jove, you’ve reason to be proud of her. I don’t speak of her beauty, – that every one can see; but she’s a noble-minded girl. She would grace any station in the land.”

      “She heard you say as much with pleasure, I ‘m certain,” said Fagan, with a smile that was more than half a sneer.

      “Nay, faith, Tony, I did not go so far. I praised her courage. I told her that not every man could have behaved so bravely.”

      MacNaghten paused at this.

      “And then – and then, sir,” cried Fagan, impatiently.

      Dan turned suddenly towards him, and, to his amazement, beheld a countenance tremulous with passionate excitement.

      “What then, sir? Tell me what then? I have a right to ask, and I will know it. I ‘m her father, and I demand it.”

      “Why, what in Heaven’s name is the matter?” exclaimed MacNaghten. “I have told you she is safe, – that she is yonder.”

      “I speak not of that, sir; and you know it,” cried Fagan, imperiously. “The dissimulation is unworthy of you. You ought to be a man of honor.”

      “Egad, good temper would be the best quality for me just now,” said the other, with a smile; “for you seem bent on testing it.”

      “I see it all,” cried Fagan, in a voice of anguish. “I see it all. Now hear me, Mr. MacNaghten. You are one who has seen much of the world, and will readily comprehend me. You are a man reputed to be kind-hearted, and you will not pain me by affecting a misunderstanding. Will you leave this to-morrow, and go abroad, say for a year or two? Give me your hand on it, and draw on me for one thousand pounds.”

      “Why, Tony, what has come over you? Is it the air of the place has disordered your excellent faculties? What can you mean?”

      “This is no answer to my question, sir,” said Fagan, rudely.

      “I cannot believe you serious in putting it,” said MacNaghten, half proudly. “Neither you nor any other man has the right to make such a proposal to me.”

      “I say that I have, sir. I repeat it. I am her father, and by one dash of my pen she is penniless to-morrow. Ay, by Heaven, it is what I will do if you drive me to it.”

      “At last I catch your meaning,” said MacNaghten, “and I see where your suspicions have been pointing at. No, no; keep your money. It might be a capital bargain for me, Tony, if I had the conscience to close with it; and if you knew but all, you ‘ve no right to offer so much temptation. That path will bring you to the Castle. You ‘ll find Miss Polly in the library. Good-bye, Fagan.”

      And without waiting for a reply, MacNaghten turned abruptly away, and disappeared in the wood.

      Fagan stood for a second or two deep in thought, and then bent his steps towards the Castle.

      CHAPTER V. JOE RAPER

      The little incident which forms the subject of the last chapter occurred some weeks before my father’s return to Ireland, and while as yet the fact of his marriage was still a secret to all, save his most intimate friends. The morning after Fagan’s visit, however, MacNaghten received a few lines from my father, desiring him to look after and “pass” through the Custom House certain packages of value which would arrive there about that time. It chanced that poor Dan’s circumstances just at this moment made seclusion the safer policy, and so he forwarded the commission to Fagan.

      The packages contained the wardrobe of Madame de Carew, and revealed the mystery of my father’s marriage. Fagan’s plans and speculations must have attained to a great maturity in his own mind, to account for the sudden shock which this intelligence gave him. He was habitually a cautious calculator, rarely or never carried away by hope beyond the bounds of stern reality, and only accepting the “probable” as the “possible.” In this instance, however, he must have suffered himself a wider latitude of expectation, for the news almost stunned him. Vague as were the chances of obtaining my father for a son-in-law, they were yet fair subjects of speculation; and he felt like one who secures a great number of tickets in a lottery, to augment his likelihood to win. Despite of all this, he had now to bear the disappointment of a “blank.” The great alliance on which he had built all his hopes of position and station was lost to him forever; and, unable to bear up against the unexpected stroke of fortune, he feigned illness and withdrew.

      It is very difficult for some men to sever the pain of a disappointment from a sense of injury towards the innocent cause of it. Unwilling to confess that they have calculated ill, they turn their anger into some channel apart from themselves. In the present case Fagan felt as if my father had done him a foul wrong, as though СКАЧАТЬ